Elevator Pitches Reach For The Top

Most of the dozen participants in IAHPC's recent Elevator Pitch Workshop were gearing up to speak to either their Minister of Health or the head of their own institution. Half of the workshop was dedicated to listening to participants' pitches and providing constructive feedback.

Their topics were diverse, including: developing an app for patients and families, fundraising, integrating palliative care education into nursing curricula, improving access to opioid analgesics, and integrating palliative care provision in community services.

Advice for a Minister's meeting

IAHPC Executive Director Liliana De Lima offered some advice: before booking time with the minister, consider bringing senior bureaucrats or department aides onside. Bureaucrats write the proposals that land on the minister's desk. Also, briefly describe your credentials and consider volunteering to help the process (i.e., enact a pilot project, do a survey, etc.): offer something of value that they will have a hard time refusing.

Limited spaces & a new opportunity

The call for applicants was closed after the first 24 hours, with 57 people vying for one of the 12 spots available. Those who participated rated the workshop highly for its content, constructive comments, and overall satisfaction, with one saying, "I've used my elevator pitch several times already!" Another reported using their pitch within a week and, later, at a conference.

"We were pleasantly surprised with the enthusiastic response to the call for applications, but also upset that we had to deny so many who wanted to join this first edition," said De Lima. "This overwhelming interest is an indicator of how such training is needed and, thus, we are planning to offer another workshop before the end of the year."

The selection criteria

Participants were selected using the following criteria: achieve a mix of representatives from countries with different income levels and geographical regions, as well as diversity in their professional backgrounds (including psychology, nursing, research, medicine). Also, each candidate was assessed for their potential to have an impact from their current position, preference for junior rather than senior applicants, their previous engagement in IAHPC projects, whether they have a specific idea they plan to present as an elevator pitch, and the quality of their responses to the question: Why do you wish to take this workshop?

The workshop was completed by the following participants (in alphabetical order): Ague Kokou Sena (Togo), Angel M. Lopez (Spain), Anwar Al-Nassan (Jordan), Dana Tarcatu (USA), Diah Martina (Indonesia), Duncan Kwaitana (Malawi), Fazlina Binti Ahmad (Malaysia), Irena Laska (Albania), Julia Ambler (South Africa), Malama Tafuna'i (Samoa), Nicholas Jennings (Trinidad and Tobago), and Saiful Adni Abd Latif (Malaysia).

"We are very grateful with the participants for taking the time to actively engage in the exercises and for submitting their elevator pitches," said De Lima. "We wish all of them good luck in their efforts, especially when delivering their pitches. We are also very grateful for their feedback and suggestions on how to improve future workshops.

"This was also an excellent experience for us as facilitators - Alison Ramsey, Katherine Pettus, Liliana De Lima and Tania Pastrana - we were truly delighted by the participants’ energy, creativity, and courage to share their pitches with everyone. I want to thank the facilitators of the workshop:"

Listen to the elevator pitches by three workshop participants—Malama Tafuna'i, Fazlina Binti Ahmad, and Anwar Al-Nassan—on IAHPC's YouTube channel.

An Elevator Pitch How-To Guide

Because the IAHPC Elevator Pitch Workshop could accommodate only a dozen people, though a great many more applied, this article outlines how to write a pitch, shares a worksheet, and gives links to a few of the participants' videotaped pitches.

Step 1:  Decide who you are pitching to.

Step 2: The Ask  Define your goal. What single thing do you want this pitch to accomplish?

Step 3: The Hook  Start strong. Your first sentence should grab their attention. Write as you speak, not as you would write for print media.

Step 4:  The Core Message Craft it carefully by keeping to just one idea per sentence. Highlight unique facets of the idea, or your organization. Use simple sentence structure and keep sentences relatively short, as you would when speaking.

Step 5:  The Call to Action End your pitch by telling the person—or reminding them—of your ask. If relevant, ask when you can discuss your idea or proposal further.

Practice, practice, then practice some more

You're not done! The last step is possibly the most important. You must practice, practice, practice your elevator pitch, preferably to people who you trust to critique it. When you can say it smoothly without having the words in front of you, record yourself. Listen well and adjust as needed: Are you speaking too quickly? Do you need to add more passion? Do you need to add emphasis to particularly important words?

Seminar panelist Ron Cameron-Lewis, an actor and expert on public speaking, gives this advice: Emphasize the vowels of words you want to stress the most, and linger a beat between sentences, to give room for your audience to absorb what you are saying.

All that being said, you don't want to sound like a robot! Allow your audience to interrupt by asking questions or responding to part of your pitch. (The goal, after all, is to get them engaged!) Once your speech is engraved on your brain, don't focus on being word-for-word perfect. You can use different phrasing for your main points, elaborate if you see a confused expression, or cut to the chase if your opportunity to deliver the pitch is especially short. This all has a side benefit: your pitch will always sound fresh!

Ready to write your own? Use this worksheet. For inspiration from workshop participants, watch their elevator pitch videos.

Read more of this week's issue of Pallinews